


Neophyte

by rewind_and_replay



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AkuRoku is endgame, Cloud is their brother, M/M, Multi, Other, Seifer's gang is there too, Slooooow burn, Sora Roxas Ventus and Vanitas are quadruplets, might have some Axel/Saix moments, so is the Twilight town gang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rewind_and_replay/pseuds/rewind_and_replay
Summary: There are times in life when not everything goes your way and you stand out in a crowd more than others. One Roxas Strife is about to have the oddest year of his life as he gets sent to Radiant high where he meets foes, friends other acquaintances and learns that it can be quite troublesome being the only keyblade wielder around.More tags will be added as the story progresses.





	1. New sights, new lives

Roxas blinked sleepily at his surroundings and yawned. Looking around the boy saw most of the passengers already gathering at the exit or packing up their things in haste.  There were also a few that had mostly slept through the flight and were coming to terms with the fact the plane had just landed. Much like Roxas himself.

The blonde bit back a curse. He was probably soundly sleeping and missed the flight attendant’s announcement of arrival. He quickly gathered his things – A backpack, phone and a jacket he had taken off earlier due to the heat – and wobbled out of his seat and through the exit. Standing on the little plane stairs that led down to a walkway was when Roxas saw it for the first time. The United States of America in all their star spangled glory. Or, what no doubt would look glorious, if Roxas hadn’t just woken up. The blurriness in his eyes transferred over to the view leaving only vague building like shapes to be visible and a definitely too-bright sun up in the sky.

Even though Roxas usually made sure to take a picture of the first thing he saw in any new place, his camera lay forgotten somewhere in his backpack, therefore the blonde decided to abandon the task. Instead he stumbled down the stairs and for the first time in about six hours felt solid ground under his feet.

Between trudging over to seize his two suitcases from the luggage exchange section and all the checkups he had to go through, everything seemed to swirl together in a blur. Roxas didn’t really get his own bearings until he realized that the tantalizing silver clock suspended from the ceiling was getting further and further away from the time he had been told someone would come to pick him up.

As he waited he noticed quite a few people snicker and chuckle as they passed him. Weird. Had they never seen a foreigner? This was America wasn’t it?

After about forty more minutes the blonde gave up on waiting for his escort and decided to head to the place by himself. It didn’t help that passersby were still laughing at him. Only when Roxas had exited the airport did he realize why everyone inside had been giving him looks. In the reflection of some electronics’ shop the blonde noticed with growing embarrassment that he had never taken off the flight attendant distributed sleeping mask. Only pushed it up on his forehead so it wouldn’t bother him as much. That had clearly been a mistake.

He immediately let go of his suitcases, ripped the offending piece of fabric off his head and stuffed it deep in his backpack. As he was doing this, face red from embarrassment, Roxas caught the cold metal glint of his camera.

Not wasting any time, the boy pulled out the camera, took some random pictures and hung it around his neck. A snap of the airport entrance, a shot of a random guy passing by on roller-skates of all things, some birds crowding on the street, and a full shot of one of the streets from a crossing. These will have to do, though Roxas hated himself for not getting anything better. Sora always got really excited when he showed off the first shots of new places they had visited.

Shrugging on his backpack once more, the blonde fished out his phone and opened a map application. Once he had pinpointed his own location and input the address for his destination the boy sighed. Turned out the airport was quite further away from his goal then he had first thought. Rubbing his eyes one last time in an attempt to fully wake up and grabbing a hold of his suitcases once more, Roxas bit back another curse as he started on his journey.

Radiant High school was the new official name of the educational facility his oldest brother Cloud had sent him off to. Cloud himself had attended it a few years back, though then it was known as “Traverse High school”. Roxas supposed his brother wanted to doom him with the blessing of improving his social skills, or as his other brother Vanitas had oh-so-kindly put it “To get out of the house and learn to have a conversation that lasts longer than five seconds”, if Roxas remembered the exact wording. He stifled another yawn and stopped to examine his reflection in some random window again.

His golden blonde hair looked mussed up from the sleep and was sticking in every direction, his eyes were squinty and looked tired and his shoulders were hunched from dragging luggage. And as the cherry on the top, the blonde emitted the aura of a very pissed of guy.

After assessing the damage he just sighed and continued to move forward.

“Sure, have the youngest most introverted member of the family go abroad to a new school. It’ll be good for him” The blonde mumbled to himself, silently cursing Cloud and all his damned good intentions. In Roxas’ opinion, this absolutely sucked.

After an eternity of wandering through the streets later, Roxas found himself completely exhausted and ready to kill anyone who as much as looked at him too long. Finally he had managed to find Radiant High and dragged himself and his belongings over to the principal’s office. There a quiet secretary had told him to wait a few minutes because the prick was out on a lunch break, before vanishing to presumably have lunch herself.

The blonde slumped down on a chair in the waiting room and let sleep claim him. If it was lunchtime here, he was safe to assume it was around 12 to 1 p.m., which in turn meant it was 2 to 3 a.m. back home in Japan. Curse the unfairness that was time-zones.

Distant wailing noises rose the boy out of slumber and back into the world of living. As he pried his eyes open, just in time to see the doors to the waiting room get slammed open, he realized the wails were in fact desperate cries for mercy from one of the two figures that entered.

Roxas studied the pair.

One of them, no doubt was the principal, while the other looked more like a student.

The principal of Radiant High school wasn’t very radiant to say the least. He was tall, much like most people in America, compared to Roxas, and looked old, but not the Harry Potter kind of old. He had light skin and long nearly platinum blonde hair. A well-trimmed beard and strangely colored eyes inspired order and wisdom while the long black robe of sorts coupled with a long red cape and various other accessories Roxas didn’t know the names of, made him look more fantasy-like. The principal’s voice was stern and deep as he talked to his companion, leaving next to no room for objections.

Speaking of his companion…Roxas shifted his gaze.

The other one was fairly tall as well, though not as tall as the former of the pair. His dirty blonde hair was cut short in the front and styled up in a sort of a mullet. A few individual bangs had broken free of the hairdo and fallen over his eyes which, as the pair approached, Roxas noted were a curious shade of cyan. The guy sported a loose jacket and some band t-shirt Roxas failed to recognize. The getup was topped off with black, slightly ripped jeans and sneakers. He was also the one pleading for mercy and looked like exactly the kind of person who would get in trouble.

Roxas was pulled out of his observations as the tallest of the pair – the principal – addressed him.

“Roxas Strife?” His stern voice made him straighten up in his seat and nod in confirmation.

“Come into my office, both of you.” He commanded.

Roxas chanced a look at the other guy who looked like he was ready to dig a hole in the floor right here and never come out.

Shrugging the blonde followed the principal inside. The puppy dog eyed blonde came in after and shut the door with a silent click. The principal, sat down behind his desk that had a nameplate with “A. Wise” printed on it and motioned for the two blondes to sit as well.  However there was only one chair in front of the desk, and the ‘Puppy dog’ managed to beat Roxas to it, as he strode over to the empty spot and slumped down in it with a self-satisfied smirk. All the begging and despair all but forgotten.

Roxas felt his eye twitch in annoyance, but went and dragged over one of the nearby chairs anyways. He concluded ‘Puppy dog’ was probably suffering from some serious mood swings, which didn’t excuse the guy from being an asshole, but Roxas was too tired to care at the moment. He just wanted to get this over with and get somewhere that had a decent bed. Preferably his new room.

He inwardly smirked when he saw Mr. Wise give ‘Puppy dog’ a disapproving glare.

“Now then” The principal began, as Roxas sat down in his newly acquired seat. “Let us start with introductions first.”

“My name is Ansem the Wise and I am the principal of Radiant High school. I make sure things stay in order around here, so if you ever encounter any problems you can come talk to me or a guidance counselor. Understood?” Even though the words he spoke were supposed to be friendly, the cold tone made them sound forced and controlling.

Nonetheless, Roxas held his ground and nodded. Even if inwardly he was a bit ticked off at such an indifferent welcome.

The principal turned to the other occupant of the room, and if his voice had been unwelcome before, at that moment it turned into a glacier. Roxas could swear he saw his own breath for an instant.

“This,” Mr. Wise even explicitly gestured to ‘Puppy dog’ “is Demyx. He is one of the students of Radiant High school and he was also the one appointed to pick you up from the airport.” As the words left the principal’s mouth, Roxas could feel rage starting to bubble inside him. So in the end it had been because of this asshole - Demyx, he had had to wait in the airport and then, after said asshole proved to be a no show, proceed to walk over to the new school ON HIS OWN. Drag not only his luggage, but also his exhausted after flight body, which still refused to believe it wasn’t the middle of the night like it was in Japan. Roxas decided that when Mr. Wise let them go, he would tell the guy exactly what he thought and would make sure he never makes this mistake again.

Roxas snapped out of his inner rage as he heard the principal address ‘Puppy dog’, now officially known as Demyx the asshole.

“And Demyx, I do hope you have a reason for not fulfilling your duty and escorting our new transfer student to my office?” Mr. Wise pierced Demyx with a sharp glare and if Roxas hadn’t been promising himself to destroy the guy the first chance he got, he probably would’ve felt sorry for him. But nothing, save for the death of a relative or loved one would be taken as a good enough excuse by the blonde.

Demyx sand down even deeper in his chair in an attempt to make himself look as small as humanly possible. He averted his eyes, not being able to handle the strain of the principal’s glare and answered in a quivering voice that got quitter the longer he stammered.

“I.. ehh… well…it might have … slipped… my mind”.

Upon hearing this, for a single moment, Roxas’s mind went blank.

And then murderous intent was spilling off of him like a downpour in a summer storm. The glare he cast Demyx was enough to make the guy go completely white in the face. However, Roxas couldn’t bring himself to care. Gritting his teeth he cursed the dirty-blonde to the pits of underworld and back over and over again. This bastard had the damn decency to claim he ’forgot’ about how he was supposed to escort Roxas to the school in a city Roxas had never stepped foot in. He had the balls to say it ‘slipped his mind’ even. Roxas was seething. This Demyx guy should be strung up by his toes and suspended from the ceiling above a pit of 10000 heartless just low enough that they could reach him with their razor sharp little claws. And then he along with the pit of heartless should all be set ablaze.

A stack of papers snapped the infuriated blonde out of his murderous thoughts and he realized Demyx was nowhere in sight. The principal had apparently excused him while Roxas had zoned out. And now Mr. Wise was explaining to him something concerning forms and papers and schedules…

Taking a few deep breaths to force himself to calm down, Roxas picked up one if the paper sheets from the small stack and asked the principal for a pen.

Approximately 34 pages of various forms and fliers later, Roxas was making his way over to the dorm building. After a bit of wandering around he managed to find room X3-0913 and after successfully unlocking it, the boy put down his suitcases, not bothering to unpack anything except the bare necessities, sent an e-mail to his family and fell into the admittedly comfortable bed for much deserved rest.

He knew that there was no use staying up anymore since he doubted he could focus on anything in the state he was in, and it wouldn’t be wise to call any of his brothers at 5 p.m., which translated to roughly 7 a.m. Roxas knew Cloud needed as much sleep as he could get.

With that thought he let himself be claimed my precious sleep.


	2. Trouble in Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things from a different perspective.

That same day, early morning.

Axel awoke to darkness engulfing his vision and a warm presence on his left. His legs were entangled in blankets and another pair of legs. As the redhead slowly became more and more awake, he realized he was in fact not in his own bed. He struggled to remember what he’d been doing last night before passing out.

If his memory didn’t fail him, he had spent the entire evening in his room giving studying his best attempts. It really was nearly impossible to focus on textbooks and assignments when his phone was constantly pinging with incoming messages from Demyx and Luxord. He’s pretty sure Marluxia swung by his and Saix’s shared room at one point to borrow some eyeliner.

He was having trouble with memorizing a particularly difficult passage of the laws of world order history book and Saix, noticing his roommate’s obvious distress, offered to help him. In the end however the pair ended up watching episodes from the tenth season of ‘My Cat from Hell’. Axel remembers dozing off around the time when Jeniffer and her family realized that Pickles is a cat who needs his space and has boundaries and is not a toy.

Well, that explained why a certain person was softly snoozing beside the redhead, their limbs entangled together and the refreshing scent of his roommate’s minty shampoo wafting through the air.

Slowly and gently so as not to wake his sleeping friend, Axel disentangled their limbs and snuck out of the bed. He heard a disapproving murp from the other as he was removing one particularly hug-y arm, but no further signs of activity after that. Having freed himself Axel attempted to stumble his way to his own bed through the pitch black darkness. He nearly tripped over a few wires, snaking along the floor of the room, and bumped into their shared closet, but he managed to successfully find his bed.

The redhead grabbed his phone from its designated spot on the night stand and checked the time. He had quite a lot of time before his first class of the day, and figuring all traces of sleep had vanished, Axel settled on taking a shower and then stopping by his other friend Demyx, to wake that lazy bum for class. He’d heard from Saix that Demyx was already on probation for being late all the time and causing chaos in general, and figured that a helpful wakeup call would be just what the blonde needed.

Axel dried and styled his ever so spiky fiery red hair and returned to his and Saix’s shared bedroom. He opened one third of the blinds, just enough to see everything in the room, and exchanged the crumpled clothes he had spent all yesterday and then fallen asleep in for a fresh set. A black t-shirt and some fashionably distressed jeans topped with the organization’s trademark jacket. The redhead gave himself a once over in the floor length mirror that acted as a sliding door for the closet and, after raking his fingers through his red hair to get a more ‘messy’ look, he smirked in satisfaction and left the room. It was about time to go wake his blonde friend.

Having annoyed away his previous roommate Demyx had become the proud and lucky owner of a dorm room he didn’t have to share with anyone. That being said, the dirty blonde wasn’t exactly the tidiest person on campus. His rom was almost always messy with clothes and junk food packaging scattered everywhere. One time when the two were playing video games together, Axel had even accidentally tipped over a half full can of Monster that Demyx had put on the floor and at some point forgotten about. Needless to say, Axel hadn’t been very stoked about his energy drink drenched socks.

When Demyx wasn’t playing video games he was usually playing his beloved sitar named “Arpeggio”. Sometimes, when the blonde would string his instrument for literal HOURS, Axel wished he could just burn the damn thing. He was also very good at playing on someone’s nerves.

While Axel was pondering over his friend’s antics, he had already reached the musician’s room. The redhead knocked on the door several times and was surprised to hear a muffled “Coming!” from the other side. Was Demyx already awake? He waited patiently, but after a minute of no signs of life inside the room had passed, Axel concluded the blonde must’ve fallen asleep on the way to the door. He knocked again and sure enough he got the same response only louder this time, and soon the doorknob turned and he was greeted by his smiling, just woken up friend. Demyx’s looked at him blearily eyed. He had a large soft looking blanket draped around his shoulders like a cape and was sporting a very messy bed head, which kind of melted Axel’s heart a bit.

“Mornin’” the blonde mumbled and then proceeded to shuffle back into the safety of his room, Axel strolling in behind him.

Immediately the redhead noticed something about the room had changed since he had last visited.

“Dem?” He questioned unsurely, “Have you been cleaning up?”

True enough, half of the room had been cleared of all the trash and … wiped from dust and mopped?

His friend dropped the blanket cape on the floor and sauntered over to his closet to look for some clothes before answering.

“Yea, had to.”

That piqued the redhead’s interest. Demyx was famously known as one of the laziest people on campus, refusing to do anything that took any considerable effort. Who knows how he got into the student activities committee. Axel certainly didn’t. It was one of the school’s great mysteries. Along with whatever it was the huge treasure chest next to the dorm administration office contained (so far no one had been able to get it open). Both of which by the way had long going bets about them. Axel’s money was on ‘Dem charmed his way into the committee with a serenade and puppy dog eyes’, though he honestly didn’t believe that anymore.

The point is – Demyx doesn’t do work. Cleaning half of his room equals quite a bit of work. Why had he done it and why only half?

Axel voiced his questions.

“Oh, they’re assigning me a new roommate. This ain’t a lifestyle change, it’s forced. The room inspection swung by yesterday.” He paused while pulling on his T-shirt. “I texted you about it.”

Axel fished out his phone from his jeans pocket and sure enough he had several unread messaged from yesterday evening.

“Haven’t checked my phone since yesterday evening, sorry about that.”

The blonde waved the apology aside, more focused on what to accessorize himself with. He settled for a plain silver necklace and returned to checking himself out in the mirror.

“So new roommate huh? Fun~” Axel commented.

Demyx, now satisfied with his appearance, huffed.

“As if! I’m fine with living alone thank you very much.”

Axel just laughed at that.

“Don’t worry”, the redhead assured. “You’ll probably chase them away soon enough anyways”.

 

 

Demyx and Axel got to the classroom in time for once, which surprised not only the teacher but also some of the other students as well. But after that Axel’s morning classes passed by without anything worth mentioning.

Well, except for the time he accidentally set his notes on fire when he was playing with one of his chakrams, too bored to pay attention. And of course it had been during history class, where he was already on an extended deadline to turn in an essay. The teacher didn’t take too kindly to that and Axel got an extra assignment for it.

The redhead complained about said extra work to Saix during lunch. The lucky bastard had his entire morning free, only having two classes in the afternoon, so at least he was in a good mood and let Axel vent to his heart’s content.

They were sitting at the organization’s usual lunch table. Almost all of the members were here already.

Xemnas – their leader who always managed to show up before anyone else, even when someone got out of class early.

Saix – Xemnas’s right hand man, who had arrived together with Axel and Demyx.

Xigbar – the pirate wannabe of the group, with a mouth to match and by far the snarkiest guy Axel knew.

Marluxia and Larxene - Both were members of drama club and were currently still deciding on what they wanted to eat.

Lexaeus and Zexion – Lexaeus was the organization’s powerhouse. The guy could basically bench press a tank and walk away without breaking a sweat. Zexion on the other hand was as flail looking and short as they come. A quiet short guy with his nose always in a book or a screen. Yet the two were never seen apart. No one knew for sure if they were dating, or just really close friends.

Xaldin – Who was texting someone on his phone and looking like he might just snap the device in half or fling it across the cafeteria any second.

And Luxord – who was absent mindedly shuffling a deck of cards while waiting for his lunch soup to cool.

The only one missing was Vexen, who was probably who knows where, too caught up in his love for science to notice the time.

Organization XIII might not be complete yet, but it sure contained a colorful array of people. Each of which was also special in their own way of course.

Axel’s whining was cut off when a cold voice rang over the intercoms.

“Demyx June, please report to the principal’s office immediately. I repeat Demyx June…”

Axel looked at his friend baffled.

“I went through all of that effort to make sure you were to class on time today. And you still manage to get in trouble? You are impossible!”

The dirty blonde shrugged apologetically.

“Sorry Axel, I guess trouble just loves coming after my ass. I mean, I don’t even know what they’re calling me in for this time. As far as I remember I didn’t break any…” He quieted down as something seemed to dawn on him.

“Oh.”

Before Axel managed to cock an eyebrow in a gesture for the other to elaborate, Demyx ran his hands through his hair roughly and shot up from the table.

“I gotta go. See you! And please don’t eat my sandwich!” With these panicked words he set off towards the principal’s office.

Axel looked at his friend’s retreating back, still baffled. He then turned to face the table again, and reaching for Demyx’s sandwich gazed at Saix questioningly.

“What do you think that was about?” He took a bite.

“…I wouldn’t know.” His friend answered, judging the redhead for his actions. “I’m not the one he texts about all his life’s details.”

“Hey, you’re always welcome back in the group chat.” Axel sent him a wink and took another bite.

Soon their chatter was interrupted by their leader, stating the usual things. How they must work hard to achieve their goal. How they must work harder to find suitable candidates for the thirteenth position. Has anyone seen Vexen today. How we need to keep wearing our organization jackets for these meetups. How we should stop getting in trouble so that the principal doesn’t start taking interest in our union, etc., etc. The usual.

Axel was done with Demyx’s lunch by the time Xemnas was asking for feedback and possible suggestions.

Nobody had anything worth wile to offer so the boss of the organization moved on to giving out new missions to his subordinates.

Axel didn’t receive a new mission, since his current ones were to one - “Help train Demyx to be a better fighter”, which was harder than it sounded, and two - “Stop failing history class”, which clearly wasn’t accomplished yet. He would probably have to start looking into getting a tutor soon or research some other method of learning. Maybe he could convince Saix to ask him test questions every evening or make flash cards…

He didn’t see Demyx again until their next shared class. Having received virtually no evidence the blonde was still even alive, Axel’s shoulders visibly relaxed when he spotted his friend sitting on a bench near the entrance to the training area and strumming away at his sitar. Hearing Axel approaching, the musician looked up and gave a half smile. Like giving a full smile took too much energy.

Some of the worry seeped back into Axel.

“Yo, Demyx, you made it out alive?” He greeted in a teasing manner.

“Somehow… You know it takes more than that to take me down.” The words were accompanied by a somber cord from Arpeggio.

“Remember how I said I’m getting a roommate?” At the question Axel quirked an eyebrow elegantly. He knew Demyx wouldn’t need any further inquiry to continue.

“Well… I met him.” The dirty blonde said in a huff. “At the principal’s.”

“Really now? That’s … good.” Axel was definitely curious now.

“No!” His companion threw his hands in the air exasperated. The sitar vanishing in a puff of shining bubbles. “Not good! I got chewed out you know?! It was awful. And he gave me this look Axel. I think my soul literally left my body for a minute there it was terrifying. So what if I forgot to pick him up from the airport, didn’t need to glare at me like that! These things happen! Now he’s probably planning my funeral or something.”

“You left the guy alone at an airport?” Axel cut off his friend’s ranting. “Dem, he’s probably never even been here.”

At that Demyx’s mind seemed to realize something. “Oh shit,” he mumbled, “I’m an asshole.”

“Yes you are Dem, but you know what will make you feel better?” Axel had a mischievous fire dancing in his eyes.

“What?” His friend asked with caution.

“Getting your ass kicked by me in sparring!” The redhead grinned widely and spread out his arms. His chackrams appearing in a flurry of flames.

“Aw come on! No fair!” But even though he complained, Demyx still summoned his sitar once again and the two began their joint training.

After they were done fighting, Axel, as usual winning every battle they started, while on their way to back to their respective rooms, Demyx turned to his friend.

“Hey Axel, if it’s not too much trouble… can you come by again tomorrow morning? And check if I’m still alive?”

Axel’s heart melted a bit at the honest request.

“Sure thing Dem, anything to keep you out’a trouble.” He said with a wink, before turning towards the direction of his dorm. “See ya tomorrow morning then… If you’re still alive~”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so about now i should probably explain that all i know about America is from movies and Tumblr posts. Radiant Highschool is situated in a city called Radiant Garden which is in America, but doesn't exist IRL. It is also next to Twilight town.   
> Radiant High isn't a very normal school though. They teach warriors/guardians/people with special powers and their students are ages 16 to 28. However they call it high school to not draw public attention. World order and all that.
> 
> I will probably proof read this chapter some time later though.
> 
> Feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions or, well, comments :D
> 
> And finally: Thank you so much for all the views and kudos!!!! They give me strength <3


	3. Tensions rising

To Axel’s relief when he swung by Demyx’s room the next morning, his friend was indeed still alive. It only took the redhead one knock for the door to be opened this time. Demyx ushered him in and insisted that Axel has to be as quiet as humanly possible. Though he himself stifled a yawn and nearly tripped over a comic book on the floor.

When Axel looked to the other side of the room he understood why Demyx was so whisper-y.

There, on the bed, buried under blankets and pillows, lay his friend’s new roommate. The supposedly death glare owner. No wonder Demyx didn’t want to wake the beast. Even if the only thing Axel could see of this ‘beast’ was a golden blonde bedhead.

“Doesn’t he have lessons”? Axel asked, pointing at the sleeping blonde with his thumb.

“I don’t know, nor do I care.” His friend gave him a deadpan look, before resuming to tame his bedhead.

Axel’s musings were interrupted by a quiet, sweet melody coming from the roommate’s side. Piano notes akin to heartbeats filled the silence in the room and even Demyx stopped fixing his hair, to look at the source of the sound.

A skinny hand crawled out from under the blanket pile in search of the source of the melody. Failing to grasp anything solid and pone shaped, the blankets shifted and fell as the figure rose up and the blonde roommate was revealed.

He had the messiest bedhead Axel had ever seen. Dem’s didn’t even come close. He was definitely younger and skinnier than both Axel and Demyx with strands of golden hair literally sticking up in every direction and clinging to his face, falling in front of his eyes in the process. Eyes that were barely open. Axel and Demyx watched mesmerized as the blonde mess of a boy yawned, mumbled something neither of them understood, asked something just as gibberish and then finally crawled out of bed and literally dragged himself over to the bathroom, taking his phone (that was still playing the melody) with him.

As he disappeared behind the bathroom door Axel and Demyx stared at each other.

Demyx whispered “He’s vicious I swear!” as if his words would convince Axel that the sleepy mess of a kid that just nearly missed the door frame on his way to the bathroom could produce a look that could kill.

“Dem, fix yourself. We’re gonna be late.” The redhead commanded with a deadpan look, almost insulted that his friend tried to pass _that_ off as even mildly threatening. He had been expecting a bulky thug or a creepy serial killer type, but definitely not a soft, skinny 15 year old at best. Wait… What was the admission age for Radiant High again? Axel would have to check that later.

They didn’t see the roommate again before leaving the dorm and making their way to the first lesson. Which was mathematics. Yup, even magic schools have mathematics. How else would you learn to negotiate with moogles?

They made it on time, once again eliciting curious and surprised responses from the teacher and other students. Axel knew it would die down after a while… provided Demyx keeps showing up on time and doesn’t fall victim to his bed and the sanctuary of sleep. Especially now that the other side of autumn had started and a drop in temperature was inevitable.

The redhead didn’t really pay that much attention to the lesson, his thoughts drifting away elsewhere. Mostly around history. He’d forgotten to ask Saix to help him review, his essay was still sitting untouched on his laptop, spanning an entirety of half a page and he hadn’t even started on the extra assignment. In fact all he had done yesterday after getting back to his room was chat with the organization members in the group chat, take a nap, make some food and waste hours upon hours scrolling through various social media. He was too screwed to think about numbers and functions right now.

Axel was shaken out of his daydream terrors by a slap to the shoulder from Demyx.

“Dude, stop blanking out and get up! We’re done here.” The blonde waved his hand in front of Axel’s face for emphasis. Axel lightly slapped the hand away and gathered up his stuff. Did he really just stress blank out about history? That subject was going to end him.

Once he had packed away all of his things he and Demyx parted ways and Axel made his way over to the language magic room. He spent the lesson learning about the differences in sentence structure between various worlds and reviewing what they had already learned previously. After languages magic came magic theory where the class learned the theoretical basics for more complicated spell casting and construction. Something that Axel had been forced to try and accomplish Wednesday since in his schedule practical magic came two days before magic theory. This annoyed him to no end and it didn’t help that their teacher already expected them to know the theory behind all the spell work.

Then there was lunch during which Axel tried his damn best not to give into temptation and just skip the last lesson of the day – the ever dreaded history class – to go hang out with Demyx. The fact that Saix was giving him a very judging look might also have played its part.

And so, Axel found himself walking around campus aimlessly, waiting out the after lunch free period he was cursed with and trying to enjoy the last few decently warm autumn days. It will never be fair that Demyx’s two last lessons were free periods while Axel had to wait an hour and a half just to suffer through history. On a Friday no less. His schedule was made by sadists, of that he was certain.

During his stroll, something caught the redhead’s attention. A dozen people had gathered in one of the more hidden away courtyards, just behind the school faculty building. His curiosity getting the better of him, Axel casually walked over to see what was going on. Upon noticing his approach, three or four people awkwardly shuffled away from the crowd but the rest remained where they stood, the same curiosity as Axel’s dancing in their eyes.

Trapped between the crowd and the stone wall of the building were two people. One of them was one of Radiant high’s well-known jerks Seifer – a self-proclaimed “protector of order” who wanted to prove to everyone that he was unbeatable. If someone talked back to him, it became his personal quest to put them in their place. And the other was a short blonde kid in a crop jacket and … were those suspenders, hanging off his belt?

Axel shuffled through the crowd to get closer. Something about the other kid felt familiar, but he couldn’t remember what. He surely would remember if he’d seen him anywhere before. The kid might be short, but his stance exuded confidence. He had spiky hair and fierce startlingly blue eyes Axel could see even from his position. The crop jacket was white with a red inside and delicate checker patterned line going around the seams of the short sleeves and the back. Under that he had a black turtle neck zip up shirt and indeed, the kid had black suspenders that crossed in the back clipped to his belt. His pants were dark grey that turned to creamy white one third down and looked pretty loose. Axel also caught the silvery glint of his necklace when the blonde jumped to the side, avoiding Seifer’s fist.

Did Axel mention that they were fighting? Because the two blondes were definitely fighting.

The spiky blonde probably said something that raised Seifer’s hackles and now he was paying the price. Though… looking at how all of Seifer’s attempts at attacking were dodged and evaded, the price seemed to be quite low.

When the self-proclaimed order keeper swung his fist out yet again, his opponent duck down and with a swift kick to his ankle, Seifer’s balance gave out, making the boy fall on his back. The crowd let out a gasp. Seifer’s influence would be dwindling fast after this was over.

And why couldn’t Axel remember where he knew the other kid from?

Seifer’s trusted friends Fu, Rai and Vivi prepared to run in and break up the fight, but Seifer held out his hand in a stopping motion and got back to his feet.

“You think you can beat me just with some fancy jumping around? I wouldn’t be the keeper of order if I’d go down that easily!”

Seifer stuck out both of his hands as blue shimmering light began to envelop his body. In front of him, five rows of dangerously sharp ice crystals appeared out of thin air, all pointing towards the spiky blonde. With Seifer’s hands directing the magic flow, the crystal’s shot forwards, right at their target.

Axel didn’t have enough the time to conjure up his chackrams or a fireball to shoot the icicles to dust with, so he was ready to jump in and tackle the kid to the ground, when a bright flash of light made him, Seifer and the rest of the crowd stop. In fact, Axel was pretty sure that time itself stopped for a moment.

A clash of metal against ice could be heard as the rows of sharp ice crystals got deflected and smashed. There, clasped in Seifer’s opponent’s hands, lay a gigantic heavily ornamented black key.

A keyblade.

Axel had only ever heard about these weapons from the magic study books or stories the professors and graduates sometimes would tell them. He had never actually seen one with his own eyes and he trusted neither had any of the onlookers. There were rumors that their literature professor’s apprentice had one, but no one had any proof to back that up. Despite never seeing it for himself though, Axel immediately recognized what it was from all the descriptions the professors had basically drilled into the student’s heads with how they gushed about the weapon and lifted it on the highest possible pedestal. Seeing one in the real life however, was magical. Every single person, except for the keyblade wielder himself, was frozen in shock, mouth agape, eyes wide as saucers, a million questions racing through their heads. Axel couldn’t describe exactly what he felt, but it was undeniable that there was a certain kind of power and charm about the weapon. It was like the air around the courtyard had turned electric in some way.

And Axel would be damned if he didn’t make the most of this opportunity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit shorter, but it felt like a good place to end the chapter.  
> Here's a sleepy Roxas picture to accompany this chapter :) http://vampiregokudera.tumblr.com/post/183591029714/a-sleepy-roxas-to-accompany-the-3rd-chapter-for-my
> 
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and views and especially thank you for the first comment on this fic !( from cameronclaire)! I'm glad someone other than me is also enjoying this :D


	4. Not the best first impressions

Roxas awoke to the soft notes of ‘Dearly Beloved’ played on a piano by his brother Sora. The piece had been recorded over a year ago and was serving as the blonde’s wakeup call ever since. Sora had been super proud after he and Ventus finished the beginner lessons with Ariel and had asked Roxas to listen. It was a simple, yet quite beautiful piece. The swirling notes of the main theme intertwining with the accompanied arpeggios, creating a heartbeat like rhythm. If you listened to the end of the recording. You would hear Sora’s excited voice proudly asking how the performance was and Roxas’ start of a response right before the audio cut off.

The blonde reached for his phone, intent on stopping his alarm and maybe sleeping for a few more hours, but alas, all he gripped was air and the cold wood of the bedside table.

With his quest ending unsuccessfully, the boy slowly rose out of the blanket nest, his body finally having rested somewhat after the previous days stressful events.

He blinked sleepily at the two tall, blurry figures on the opposite side of the room and greeted them a good morning. The place he was resting at didn’t seem familiar at all so Roxas also inquired about his whereabouts, but the black and red and black and yellow figures remained silent. They might’ve exchanged glances, but Roxas couldn’t tell. His brain usually needed some time to get working in the mornings.

Deciding he’d be better figuring things out in a more private location, the boy slowly got out of bed and headed to where, in his hazy memories, he remembered seeing a bathroom. On his way there, he spotted his phone, resting on the very edge of a table and still playing ‘Dearly beloved’. He swiped it off the table and disappeared behind the white door that led to the bathroom.

Leaning his back against the closed door, he let the piece play out until it had almost finished, basking in the feel of familiarity and home, and only then did he dismiss the alarm.

Roxas cleared his mind enough to remember that he was in the new boarding school now so the two people outside were probably his roommates or something. Well that certainly didn’t make for a good first impression, but hopefully they would learn to accept his late-riser personality. In Roxas’ mind nothing before 9 am counted as humanly hours.

He splashed some cool water on his face to force himself to wake up even more and shuddered at the coldness. Then he figured it was time for a bath- … shower? The blonde stared at the white shower stall with its bright blue curtain adorned with images of swimming turtles and various fish in bewilderment. Hesitantly he pushed the curtain aside to reveal a metal shower head hooked onto the wall with its various switches for different settings.

How…. How was he supposed to operate this???

Thankfully he had his phone and google was just a few taps away.

After 10 whole minutes of awkward shower model googling and instruction deciphering Roxas finally figured out how to work the thing. He then proceeded to wash his hair, body and just soak in the hot water raining down his body for another half an hour.

He supposed he could get used to the western showers… in due time.

Thankfully he’d been farsighted enough yesterday, to toss his towel on the towel rack next to the shower, so that saved him from any embarrassment or towel borrowing troubles. He also found out that the two people that were in the room earlier had left already, allowing him to relax even more. The blonde fixed himself up in a leisurely manner and, after hunting down a pack of instant ramen from his luggage for breakfast, began properly unpacking.

For today he only had one appointment planned, which was scheduled around lunch break, so he didn’t feel any need to hurry.

His appointment was with none other than Mr. Ansem the Wise himself and Yen Sid, a powerful wizard who used to be a keyblade master and had taught Sora’s best friend’s absolute idol – Mickey Mouse. Roxas was sure they guy would marry Mickey if he could.

Checking the time revealed that it was soon time to go look for the meeting room. While Roxas did have a map of the campus, it was different from the usual maps he was used to seeing and it made it much more difficult to actually navigate between the buildings. It took some backtracking when he’d turn the wrong way and quite a bit of map turning before the blonde finally made it to the faculty building where the meeting was supposed to take place.

He was greeted by an old, stern looking man dressed in royal blue robes. The man had an impressive grey beard that split off in the middle near the end and he was also wearing a pointy blue hat, adorned with a golden moon and shimmering stars that, on closer inspection, seemed to be moving just the slightest bit.

“You must be Roxas.” Roxas straightened his back unconsciously at the greeting.

“Yes, Sir!” He was tempted to salute. The man in front of him, albeit old and dressed quite weirdly, emitted a strong, powerful aura. The blonde also noticed how intense the wizard’s eyes looked and how they seemed to be noting down his every breath and judging it for performance. To say the least, the now-retired master Yen Sid terrified Roxas to the bone.

“Follow me.” Yen Sid ordered and walked off in the direction of a staircase. Roxas obediently followed, easily falling in step with the wizard. He decided he should try and keep his usual sarcasm under wraps in the man’s presence.

The blonde was led to a meeting room on the third floor. There was an oval shaped wooden table in the center of it, with chairs all around it and at the front of the room, affixed to a wall, was a whiteboard. It seemed that the principal hadn’t arrived yet.

Yen Sid cleared his throat.

“Take a seat.” Roxas did as told. “The goal of this meeting today is to test your overall abilities concerning various subjects that are practiced in this institution. I’m afraid the principal will join us with some delay. It appears he had to attend to some important matters elsewhere.”

With a puff of pink smoke, the wizard produced a dark blue, plastic document folder out of thin air. He then handed the folder to Roxas, who was progressively getting more confused with the whole situation.

“Inside this folder you will find question sheets pertaining to the technical nature of subjects as History, Basic magic, Core sciences and Literature, to name a few. Do not be discouraged if you can’t answer some of the questions, as our wish is to discern your current level of knowledge and prepare a fitting curriculum.”

“After you’ve completed the written test, I will evaluate your physical skills in combat and magic. It will also be required for you to choose to study certain subjects. For example you can chose between History and Geography, however that will be done only after we have evaluated your knowledge and skills.”

“Do you have any questions, Roxas?”

Roxas straightened his back once more, trying to catch up to the amount of information master Yen Sid had given him.

“No questions, Sir.”

Yen Sid’s squinted his falcon eyes a bit, as if he didn’t believe Roxas, but he didn’t press on.

“Very well then, you may begin.”

By the time the testing was done the lunch break had passed and the next period had already started. Ansem the Wise had only managed to show up for a brief moment, when Roxas was filling out the question sheet for Magic theory, but after getting a phone call from someone, had to leave again. Roxas guessed master Yen Sid had plenty of experience to decide what level he should be put in anyways.

The blonde pulled out his phone as he descended the stairs, tired and feeling like his brain would catch fire any minute now from all those extensive tests.

As he was exiting the building he bumped into something hard and stumbled backwards.

“Hey, watch it!”

Roxas looked up to find a blond boy in a white, long jacket and a blue crop-top vest glaring at him.

“You gonna apologize or what?” Demanded another boy to the other blonde’s left. He had short, black hair and a glaring orange hoodie.

“Sorry.” Roxas bit back defensively. He then added on “I guess” as an afterthought.

This, as it turned out, had been the wrong thing to say.

“Oh you are so gonna need an attitude change, y’know? This is Seifer you’re talking to, y’know?”

Roxas didn’t know and his expression showed as much. This in turn, lit a fire in this Seifer’s eyes.

“You’re not from around here are ya? Well, how about I give you a courtesy greeting?” With that, Seifer grabbed Roxas’s arm and pulled him to an area behind the faculty building. A few more people had caught sight of them and were beginning to gather at the edges of the hidden away courtyard area. Roxas noticed some of them pulling out phones and snapping pictures.

He was so not in the mood for this.

The golden blonde easily caught his balance as Seifer shoved him towards the building wall, preventing any escape.

“That’s one lousy courtesy greeting if you ask me.” Roxas quipped and something in Seifer’s eyes snapped. Roxas nearly didn’t have enough time to dodge the punch the other blonde swung his way.

Nearly.

Roxas managed to dodge in time by rolling to the side, but Seifer kept going after him. As the fight went on, the crowd of spectators steadily grew larger as well. Roxas wondered why no one was alerting any of the faculty members about the fight, since the building was literally right there. None the less, the crowd prevented him from running away so he kept on dodging. Looked like the only way out at the moment was though wall jumping, but after the last summer’s incidents, Roxas had regrettably given up on learning flow-motion. Leave that to Sora.

However, Roxas was never good with staying on the defensive.

When his opponent attempted to strike him yet again, Roxas swiftly duck down and kicked at Seifer’s ankle. A move he had learned from Vanitas. This successfully made Seifer lose his balance and fall to the ground. The crowd around them gave out a unified gasp.

Roxas watched as his opponent got to his feet again and took on a defensive stance. He had just about enough of this fight.

The feeling was really driven home, when the other blonde threw back his hand and yelled out:

 “You think you can beat me just with some fancy jumping around? I wouldn’t be the keeper of order if I’d go down that easily!”

After this he conjured up particles of blue, shimmering magic that enveloped his body and five rows of spear like ice crystals appeared in front of him. Roxas grit his teeth. He hadn’t wanted for the fight to get this serious. Now that his opponent had ice weapons aimed at his trajectory, there was no use in playing around.

Just as the crystals began their descent on their target, Roxas summoned Oblivion and deflected, crushing the icicles into crystal powder.

He got ready to fire off a response attack, only to falter and step back in confusion.

Seifer was staring at him, absolutely bewildered. All traces of magic gone from his body, his mouth agape and his eyes in a total state of shock.

Suddenly it had become very, very quiet. Looking around, Roxas saw that the entire crowd of spectators had been thrown into the same state as his opponent. Everyone was staring at him like he’d just turned into a giant bear or something and it was making him very, very uncomfortable.

Had these people never seen a keyblade?

However, Roxas didn’t have much time to consider his next plan of action, as suddenly a black and red whirlwind dashed in between him and everyone else and applied a solid surprise chop to the back of his head, making the blonde loose both his footing and consciousness.

When he came to, Roxas found himself slumped on a chair in an unfamiliar classroom, a fiery redhead in a black jacket pacing back and forth in front of him, mumbling unintelligible things under his breath. Upon hearing a grunt from his hostage, the redhead stopped and, in a second, was way too close and in Roxas’ personal space.

“You’re awake!” He drawled, relieved. “Oh thank gods I didn’t straight up murder you. Listen, I am so sorry for how this turned out, but bear with me yea?”

The stranger’s voice could only be described as ‘chilling’ and ‘snarky’ at the same time. Roxas gulped as he stared into the guys nearly neon-green eyes, and were those… purple diamonds under them? The blonde didn’t have enough time to process what he was seeing before his captor had already moved away.

“So, blondie, I got an offer for ya.” The redhead leaned against one of the tables as he talked. “Ever heard of Organization XIII?”

Roxas shook his head.

“Really?” The redhead seemed surprised. “We’re kind of a big deal around these parts.”

He shook his head dismissively “Guess not that widely known then. Anyways, we’re an organization that aims to gather knowledge of this world and strengthen our power while doing so. Our main goal is to preserve peace and keep the darkness at bay. If you wanna know more, I’m sure our leader can give you a much more detailed explanation.” He pushed off the table and walked closer to Roxas again. “Currently we have twelve members, we’re looking for one more.” He pointed a black gloved index finger at the blonde.

Roxas narrowed his eyes and stood up.

“Sorry, I’m not particularly interested in joining any organization.” With that he was about to head for the door, but the redhead blocked his way, his expression darkening somewhat.

“Oh, I think you’re misunderstanding something here.” His neon green eyes narrowed as well. “You don’t get a choice, kid.”

Roxas tried bypassing the redhead, but got pushed back by his captor’s surprisingly strong arm. He looked leaner than he was actually built.

“Just come with me quietly and I won’t hurt ya, promise.” His tone had returned to being playful, but his eyes remained cold.

“No way.” Roxas shot back, standing his ground. “Let me go!”

The organization member sighed, stretched his arms out to either side of him and whispered “Hard way it is then.” Suddenly his arms were enveloped in whirlpools of fire that swirled around him and concentrated at his palms, spinning around in progressively denser growing circles, until a metal ring with spikes appeared in each of his hands. He clutched the conjured weapons, net even bothered by the fire still licking at his arms and the metal, and got into a fighting stance.

Roxas stepped back in shock, his surprised expression illuminated by the orange light of the flames. The, now literally, flaming redhead took a step forward for every step the blonde took backwards, until the back of Roxas’s legs hit the chair he’d been sitting on earlier.

Thankfully, the light impact helped the boy ground himself and come back to his senses.

His captor was lifting up one of his hands, preparing to strike, when a sudden flash of blue light shot towards him, cutting him off.

“Freeze!”

The organization member blinked in confusion. All of a sudden his vision had a blue tint to it amd he couldn't move. A cold sensation was beginning to seep into his bones as he looked at the blonde boy, who had taken on a fighting stance. He’d summoned the black keyblade again sometime in the last second, but with the obstacle gone, the boy let the weapon disappear in particles of light crystals and without a glance back, left the room.

It was only after the blonde had shut the door behind him, that Axel realized he was encased in a giant block of ice, his flames somehow frozen along with the rest of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this chapter was tough to get to. Sorry for the delay to anyone who was waiting. It's a bit longer than usual, so i hope that makes up for it. This is how far the original Neophyte was plotted out, so from here on out, we're going rouge :D  
> Here's a drawing of a frozen Axel :D http://vampiregokudera.tumblr.com/post/183984557929/more-art-for-my-fic-neophyte-this-one-depicts
> 
> Thank you to all who have left kudos and read this <333 It is greatly appreciated!
> 
> Also should i tag every character that's i the story or just the main ones? I don't really wanna clutter the tags too much, so if anyone has any tips on how to tag characters please let me know.  
> Edit: Did a bit of beta reading and fixed some mistakes. I can't believe i accidentally wrote organization XII instead of XIII (III; _ ; )


	5. Setting the stage

Even before Axel could think about summoning bouts of flames to free him from his sudden ice prison, he felt cracks forming in the ice, spiraling their way all over, until the block of ice shattered into blue sparkling ice dust that disappeared before it hit the ground.

It took the redhead about ten minutes to get his bearings and process all that had happened. It took another five to realize he’s late for history class, and another two to decide it wasn’t worth going back to.

Chasing after the blonde keyblade wielder was probably futile at this point and Axel was feeling tired after the encounter. He made his way back to his room.

Once he got there, the redhead headed straight for his bed and passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

“Axel, get up!” Axel was awoken with a few shakes from his roommate. Saix hat sat down on the edge of the redhead’s bed and was leaning over him, slight concern visible in his eyes.

“You really shouldn’t be sleeping in your day clothes, you know.”

Axel blinks, blurry eyed. Had he fallen asleep without changing? And… how long had he slept? Even though the curtains were drawn, the room seemed pretty bright. He started remembering the earlier events bit by bit.

Saix got up to open the aforementioned curtains fully, letting sunlight flood their shared room.

“Shit… what time is it?”

The blunette turned to him, sunlight framing his features in a soft glow.

“Eleven thirty precisely.”

Axel blinked slowly, taking in both the view and the information.

“Eleven thirty huh?” He let his head fall back onto the pillow and muttered “Shit”.

He hadn’t expected to actually pass out after getting back from his yesterday’s encounter. Had he really been that tired?

The redhead was pulled out of his thoughts by his roommate.

“I have some business to attend to, so I’ll see you in today’s meeting, alright? Don’t stress yourself out too much.” And with that he pulled on the organization jacket and disappeared out the door, leaving Axel alone.

Sleeping in his day clothes really hadn’t been the most comfortable decision.

He freshened up with a shower after which he paged through his history textbook while munching on a sandwich. Axel managed a solid half an hour of studying, before he gave up and reached for his phone to check out what happened in the world during his absence. As it turned out – not much. After about an hour the redhead was bored with that too, and decided to bug his friends. Maybe one of them was just as bored as he was.

Luxord was too busy to hang out most Saturday mornings, Xigbar’s plans for hanging out almost always consisted of something borderline illegal, and Axel wasn’t feeling up to another reminder from the police at the moment, and Marluxia hadn’t answered any of his texts. That only left Demyx.

They decided that Axel will go get Dem, and then they’ll go to the town, to waste time in shops and cafes until the meeting.

After twenty minutes, Axel was at his friend’s door. He had to knock several times, before it was opened by … a different, but also familiar blonde boy.

That explained why the keyblade wielder from yesterday had seemed so familiar.

In front of him, wearing the same scowl as the last time Axel had seen him, stood the blonde, spikey haired keyblade wielder.

Recognition and annoyance flashed in his blue eyes upon seeing the redhead at the door.

“What do you want?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Hey, chill, I’m here for Demyx,” Axel put his hands up defensively, his eyes involuntarily going to the blonde’s hand, which he had summoned the keyblade with. ”This is room nine-thirteen right?”

“He’s in the shower.” The blonde said and stepped away from the door, letting Axel come in.

Right. It was just like Demyx, to arrange to meet with someone and then take a shower. Axel plopped down on his friend’s bed and watched the other occupant of the room curiously.

“How long has he been there?” If he was lucky Demyx should be out soon and then they could be on their merry way.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Was his short reply, as the blonde sat down on the other bed and put an open laptop in his lap.

“Riiiight… So what’s your name?” Axel inquired.

The blonde looked at him, annoyance once again flashing through those blue blue eyes, and very pointedly put on a pair of black headphones.

“Rude…” Axel muttered and laid down on Demyx’s bed, pulling out his phone again, to check his social media and maybe do some research.

The room was enveloped in silence, only disturbed by the clicking of the blonde’s keyboard every once in a while.

Axel opened the organization’s chat.

VIII: So… Demyx got a new roommate. Anyone know anything about the guy?

VIII: Zex? You usually know everything about everyone.

VIII: Any ideas?

He got no immediate responses so the redhead opened keystagram again.

He got to Marluxia’s beauty tip of the day post, when Demyx finally emerged from the bathroom.

“Sup! You wait long?” The blonde greeted as he pulled on a shirt.

“Wouldn’t have to, if you hadn’t decided to have your beauty shower. Who does that?” Axel retorted, annoyed.

Demyx stuck his tongue out playfully in response.

The redhead sighed, exasperated.

“Just get ready you jerk, I wanna go already.” Axel swatted at the blonde.

Before they left Demyx tapped his roommate on the shoulder lightly.

“Hey, Roxas, I’m leaving for a while.”

The other blonde shrugged and put his headphones back on.

“Sure. Bye.”

 “Roxas, huh?” Axel tried out the name. It had a nice ring to it.

With that the pair were on their way.

They passed the time until the meeting, walking around the town, looking at various shops and cafes. Axel finally managed to buy a game he’d been waiting for about a month and Demyx bought himself a game character key chain, to add to his collection. They got pizza for brunch and just generally had a fun time hanging out.

While they were walking around the town, Axel used the opportunity to complain about his history woes and in return, Demyx vented about math and magic theory.

When they got to the designated meeting place – An empty white room with twelve white chairs placed in a circle, which was just above the bar where Luxord worked part time -, the two were greeted by Zexion, Lexaeus and Vexen, who were already there, each sitting in their designated chairs.

“Hello Axel, Demyx.” The organization’s cloaked schemer greeted. “Axel, I saw your inquiry in our group chat, why the sudden interest in Demyx’s personal life?”

“All good secrets will be revealed in time Zexy.” Axel winked at the boy, who in turn scowled in disapproval. “For now you could say that I met the guy and am simply intrigued.”

He and Demyx both went over to seats number eight and nine respectively.

“You mean Roxas?” Demyx asked while pulling out his phone to check the chat. “What’s so intriguing about him?”

“He’s new, for one.” Axel also checked his phone, to see there were a bunch of new messages from the chat.

“And so you want to dissect him, before he, god forbid, gets the chance to snatch the balance from underneath your shoes.” A sassy voice supplied and Axel looked up to see Marluxia, the organization’s other assassin, enter and waltz over to seat number eleven.

At the word “dissect” Vexen perked up, now interested in the conversation.

“Ok, first of all, no one is dissecting anyone” Axel made sure to look at Vexen while saying this. “And second, I’m not that paranoid, ok? I’m just genuinely curious.”

He didn’t mention that said new guy had already managed to shake his balance.

They were joined by Luxord.

“Sounds like someone’s being defensive. Who wants to bet there’s something going on between this new guy and our favorite assassin?”

Axel gave the gambler the most charming/deadly smile he could muster, but that only made the man falter a little bit.

While they were discussing the possibilities of the bet, the rest of the members gradually appeared, until, finally, their leader, Xemnas walked in, with Saix by his side, and the meeting could officially begin.

“I am glad and grateful to see that all of the members managed to make some time for today’s meeting.” The leader started off, and everyone knew this was his indirect way of belittling Vexen for missing the last meeting.

“As you all know memories fade faster than we are capable of noticing, therefore we would do wise to not waste our moments with idle chit chats.”

The organization inwardly sighed at their leader’s way of saying ‘Let’s get straight to the point’. He was basically famous for his non-understandable metaphors and riddles of speech.

“Your reports will be accepted now.” Saix commanded, letting everyone know it was time to report progress on their individual missions. Or as much progress as they could disclose with the entire organization present. While they were a united team, Xemnas sometimes didn’t want them to know the entirety of what they were doing. If someone had problems with that way of thinking, they hadn’t shown it so far.

One by one, in order of their numbers, each member reported their respective mission progress. Sometimes getting comments from the other listeners, but for the most part everything went by smoothly.

When it was Axel’s turn, he notified everyone that Demyx had mastered the basics of combat, and was now decently good at it. He got the slightest hint of a smile from their leader for his troubles and further instructions to keep training with the musician.

After they were done with their individual reports, Xemnas turned to the collective missions – mainly – possible candidates to fill the thirteenth spot.

At this Axel spoke up again.

“As a matter of fact, boss, I might have met someone who might pique your interest.” He let a cat-like smile creep over his lips, satisfied that no one else had found any good candidates.

“Have you now, Axel…Continue.” Xemnas’s attention zeroed in on the redhead, who in turn actually needed to focus, to keep calm. Their boss was intense and frightfully so. No one could really stand being scrutinized by his watchful gaze and powerful aura. Well.., no one except Saix, who followed the man nearly every spare moment. Not that Axel was keeping tabs on the blunette or anything.

“Demyx’s new roommate.” He replied in a colder tone than he had intended, thoughts of Saix’s unwavering loyalty leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. “Little Roxas just so happens to be a keyblade wielder.”

Axel thoroughly enjoyed the stunned silence that followed his statement, the mischievous glint returning to his eyes.

It took some time, but Xemnas pressed on.

“Is he now? Do you have proof to back up your claims?”

Did he have proof? The redhead scoffed lightly.

“Of course, saw it with my own eyes, together with a bunch of other people.” He omitted the fact that he had personally experienced the weapon’s magic on his skin. “Should be all over rumor boards by now.”

“He’s right.” Larxene’s sharp voice cut in. She held up her phone for the rest to see. Her Kingstagram app was open and she had paused on a picture of a blonde boy holding a giant, black key. The picture wasn’t particularly good, and was taken from behind Seifer’s back, but sure enough, it was a picture of Roxas, taken during the brief moment when he had summoned the keyblade to his defense.

 “The picture’s kinda shit, but yea, that looks like a keyblade alright.” Xigbar commented in slight awe.

“I thought they only existed in our teachers’ fairy tales.” Demyx stared at the picture, not quite believing his roommate possessed something like that.

“This is quite fascinating” Zexion chimed in “if the keybade truly does hold the amount of power we’ve been led to believe, it could tip the scales of whichever side has it quite easily.”

“It would indeed benefit the organization to have such a power on our side.” The leader joined in, voicing what everyone was more or less thinking.

“Axel, since you discovered him, I will leave it to you to extend an official invitation on the behalf of the organization.” Xemnas declared. “Demyx will be taken under Xigbar’s guidance from now on. Consider this your new mission.”

A cold, sinking feeling settled itself in Axel’s bones. How was he supposed to get the brat to join the organization if he had failed on that aspect once already?

The rest of the meeting sounded like it was held underwater to the redhead. His thought went back and forth between absolute defeat and renewed confidence like a kid on a swing.

Finally the meeting was over and Axel felt like he could breathe again. With Xemnas, and, by extension – all the organization’s expectations of him, out of sight the redhead felt himself visibly relax. Marluxia shot him a concerned glance, but didn’t say anything, and Saix had left together with the leader, as expected.

“Axel, everything good?” It was Luxord, who decided to act on his worries. “The new mission thing not too tough on you? If you need help..-”

But Axel cut him off.

“Thank Lux, but I think I can handle a kid with a key.” Could he though? And would he even be able to make up a reason good enough for the kid to join in the first place? It’s not like Axel was particularly stoked on getting a new member for the organization. Someone would have to train the kid if he did join, and Axel had had enough of training with Demyx, thank you very much.

He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He didn’t need that right now. Instead he slung an arm around Luxord’s shoulder and leaned in to whisper in a conspiracy clad voice:

“You up for a little game time?”

Axel, Luxord, Demyx, Xigbar and, surprisingly, Zexion and Lexaeus ended up playing poker and drinking soda (at Lexaeus’ insistence, because Zexion was still underage) well into the evening, and by the time they started heading back to their respective homes and dorm rooms, the sun was already painting the sky pink and gold.

Axel, as usual, went back together with Demyx, and they mostly talked about nonsense all the way. They were passing by a small park, not too far from Radiant High’s campus when he noticed a now familiar jacket on a blonde kid, standing next to one of the benches in the park.

Roxas couldn’t see Axel and Demyx from his position, but Axel could clearly see the blonde. The kid was surrounded by three more kids that Axel didn’t know and they were all laughing their asses off about something. Roxas, in particular, was holding his stomach, almost doubled over, trying to hold back the laughter that threatened to spill from his shaking shoulders. A kid with dark brown hair said something, and suddenly Roxas was throwing his head back, letting his laughter ring out across the park, and for some reason Axel felt warm, like a ray of pleasant sunshine had descended on him.

He then realized, that maybe having Roxas in the organization wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe they could even become friends. And maybe… maybe Axel could make the blonde laugh like that someday.

A tap on his shoulder brought the redhead back to reality. Demyx was staring at him confused.

“You ok? You kinda zoned out there for a bit.”

Axel shrugged, feigning nonchalance.

“’Am fine, don’t worry. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy this took a while. I managed to get sick, and then Easter holidays came, and then i didn't have much motivation... For some reason Axel's chapters feel harder to write. I basically gotta wait for the stars to be in the right possition :D  
> Anyways, now Axel has a personal reason to bring Roxy into the organization :)  
> Also I'll try not to overlap the events too much in the future.
> 
> Thank you for all the hits, kudos and comments.  
> Also go check out cameronclaire's fanfic The Other Day at Hot Topic. It s really good and i love it very much :)


	6. Power of friendship

Roxas checked the time on his pone and whispered a curse.

5.05 am was what the numbers said, but to his mind it somehow felt like midday. He looked over at his sleeping roommate, the room dark enough to let him see just a blob of black, slightly darker than the rest of the shapes.

Demyx, as the blonde had learned, didn’t care much for other people’s comfort or sanity, as suggested by the mess of clothes and what Roxas presumed were snack wrappers, which were ever so slightly creeping into his part of the room. It hadn’t even been one full day of knowing the other blonde, and Roxas was already planning on setting down a line of duct tape to indicate their respective halves of the room.

After blasting the fiery guy with blizara yesterday, Roxas had returned back to his room, where he properly met Demyx for the first time. The two had exchanges greetings and once again introduced themselves to each other. Without the murderous glare directed towards the guy, Roxas found that the other blonde had become more audacious and talkative. He wasn’t sure if that was something he preferred. Still, the two managed to act in a human enough way, but were still far from friends. In fact, Demyx was still on Roxas’ hit list.

The blonde quietly pulled his laptop in his bed and turned it on. He plugged in headphones and thanked his lucky stars when just seconds after, there was an incoming Line call from no other than his brother – Sora.

“Roxaaaaaaas!!!!” His brother’s excited yelling assaulted his ears immediately. “How have you beeeen? Why d’you take so long? How’s America? Have you made any friends yet? Why can’t I see you? Turn on your camera!”

Roxas hastly typed back his response.

‘Stop yelling, I can hear you just fine.’

‘I can’t speak because it’s early morning here and my roommate is sleeping.’

He watched as his brother’s face became focused on the received messages.

‘And there’s no use to turn on the camera because it’s too dark to see anything’

“You have a roommate? What kind of a person is he? Is he cool?”

Roxas typed back, doing his best to match Sora’s quick pace.

‘He’s kind of a jerk. Happy go lucky I guess. Kind of like you~’

He laughed at his brother’s sputtering about that last comment. Hearing Sora’s voice, as loud and excited as it was, felt somehow calming.

“Aaah but it’s so weird to talk to you and not see your face! Are you sure you can’t turn on the camera?”

Roxas didn’t write back this time. Instead he put on a deadpan look and turned on his webcam.

“See it’s not that… umm… ok I see your point.”

Roxas was about to turn the camera back off, but was interrupted.

“But leave it on though! I can kind of see your outline and face, so it’s not entirely horrible.” Sora grinned at the screen.

Roxas was listening to Sora talk about how his last days had gone, when another figure appeared on the screen.

“Yo, loser, how’s the states?” Vanitas waved a hand and sat down next to Sora, who in turn complained about the space being cramped.

‘Nothing special so far.’

‘… I got into a fight’

That counted for something, right?

He heard Vanitas whistle in approval and Sora calling for their other brother, Ventus.

Said brother appeared during the time Roxas wrote a short summary of yesterday’s events.

“You met YenSid? That’s so cool! I didn’t know he was there!” Ventus’ cheery voice joined the conversation.

‘Is Cloud home?’ Roxas was torn halfway between wanting to talk to their oldest brother and wanting to stay bitter about the whole moving schools ordeal. But it felt appropriate to ask.

“Nope, he’s got an evening shift today.” Sora supplied, while the other two nodded in agreement.

They talked for some more time until Roxas ran out of things to ask or write, so

They ended the conversation there. With virtual hugs and promises to call back soon.

Roxas smiled to himself as he headed to the little kitchen to fix up something to eat. He still had some instant ramen so… that would have to do.

By the time Demyx got up, Roxas had already finished breakfast, played his daily share of the mobile game Union X, read all the new chapters for his list of favorite manga, played more Union X, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, checked his Kingstagram account and messaged his online best friend group about their meeting today.

Roxas was beyond excited to finally meet the people he’d been talking to online for about five years now. Hayner, Pence and Olette were all friends in real life too, and they all lived in Twilight Town, which was not too far from Radiant Garden, so, for the first time ever, the four of them had scheduled to meet up in person.

Roxas had first started talking to Hayner on an American skateboarding web site, and soon they found out they have a lot in common and messaged each other directly. Hayner had also introduced Roxas to his other friends – Pence and Olette – and the four of them became fast friends. Hayner also had helped Roxas prepare for his trip to America. He gave him tips on what to not do/do, what to expect and generally answered all of Roxas’s questions about the country. Granted, a lot was still foreign to the blonde, but he hoped Hayner could help with that too.

Aside from skateboarding and bonding over anime, music and video games, they didn’t really do that much else. Except for the occasional complaining about life and their respective schools. Roxas hadn’t even seen what his friends really look like.

Either way, he knew meeting them would be a blast.

Roxas was pulled out of his reverie by his roommate saying something so he pulled down his headphones.

“How long have you been up man?”

The keyblade wielder thought about his resolution to at least try and be a decent roommate.

“A while.”

“…Wanna go get some breakfast?” It sounded unsure and just the tiniest bit timid.

Was he… trying to be nice to him?

“I already ate.” Roxas replied stoically and watched as the other blonde’s face fell, but then brightened right back up.

“Allrighty then.” And with that Demyx was making his way to the kitchen, leaving the puzzled Roxas with the muted music coming from his headphones.

Connecting with people was hard.

A bit later Hayner finally responded to Roxas’s message, and they chatted back and forth about Roxas’s first experiences, the terror of facing an American style bathroom and other things. Out of the corner of his eye Roxas noticed his roommate heading over to said bathroom, towel in hand. His attention got redirected back to the chat however, when he got a notification about Olette coming online.

The keyblade wielder was enjoying his music and chatting with his friends, when the current song ended and a series of impatient knocks came from the door.

Roxas pulled down his headphones and glanced at the bathroom door uneasy. The sound of water and humming indicated that the occupant of the bathroom was in no position to answer the door so... Was Roxas supposed to get that? He knew for a fact there was no way the person knocking was looking for him.

The knocking continued as Roxas slowly made up his mind.

He pushed away his laptop and made his way over to the door, pulling it open only to find… yesterday’s red haired menace.

Roxas felt his mood sour immediately. Why was he running into the guy again so quickly?

“What do you want?”

The redhead backed up a little at the question, intimidated by the unwelcoming tone.

“Hey, chill, I’m here for Demyx”.

Roxas’s fingers twitched with the urge to summon Oblivion.

“This is room nine-thirteen right?” The redhead’s eyes glided over to the room number plate.

Roxas figured slamming the door shut or telling the guy to wait outside would have been just a bit too rude, so he told him Demyx was in the shower and waled back towards his bed, leaving the door open and letting his roommate’s supposed friend in.

“How long has he been there?” The redhead asked sounding just a little annoyed.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Roxas replied coldly and got comfortable in his bed again, pulling his laptop back into his lap, hoping the redhead would stop talking to him.

“Riiiight… So what’s your name?” Apparently the guy couldn’t take the hint.

Roxas didn’t reply. Instead he picked up his headphones, and while staring straight into the redhead’s eyes, very pointedly clasped them over his ears.

He heard the other mutter ‘Rude’, before pressing ‘play’ on the music album Hayner had last sent him.

He got basically all of his foreign music from Hayner. Whatever his friend recommended for him, Roxas would listen to. They had this arrangement going for several years now. Hayner provided him with great music he could listen to while skateboarding, drawing, doing homework, going shopping or doing literally anything else. Everything was more fun with music. Sometimes a little too much fun. Roxas had learned eventually that listening to music while doing homework ultimately resulted in failure.

He kept chatting with Hayner and Olette on Line, but every once in a while the blonde cast a glances to see what the other occupant of the room was doing.

The redhead had claimed Demyx’s bed, laying on it sprawled out like a cat on a sunlight warmed porch, and was scrolling through his phone.

Well, as long as he wasn’t doing anything weird like yesterday, the boy supposed it was fine.

After some time Demyx came out of the shower and before the pair of friends left, the blonde tapped Roxas’ shoulder to let him know they were leaving. Roxas didn’t really care, but he said goodbye anyways.

He saw his roommate’s friend say something and grin at his direction. Roxas had no idea what that had been about, the words made inaudible by the music. He did get a slight shiver from the weird look though.

Weirdo.

When the door closed, Roxas turned his attention back to Line.

Roxas’ heart was picking up speed the closer he got to the designated meeting spot.

He repositioned his hold on the backpack he’d taken along and took a deep breath in an attempt to somewhat calm his nerves. In just a little while he’d be meeting his best friends in person for the first time ever! Roxas really hoped he wouldn’t mess this up somehow. He was most known for his cold and standoffish personality back home after all.

He looked around to make sure he hadn’t mixed up the location. Sure enough, the donut shop with a red panda mascot that Olette had picked as their guiding post, was right across form the little pedestrian square where he was standing. So far there was no one wearing a bandana, a plaid crop jacket or plaid shorts.

Roxas started considering getting out his phone and texting Hayner, when an unsure voice from behind made him turn around.

“Hey…, Roxas? … Is that you?”

Roxas turned around and came face to face with three wonderful people. A boy with a dark grey sweatband holding up his dark brown hair, an orange bandana around his neck and a black and white shirt that has “Dog street” written on it with a stylized dog mascot underneath it. A girl with brown hair that sticks out on the sides with two strands of hair draping over her shoulders, red plaid shorts that go just a little over her knees and a black tank top with red dash lines. The outfit is accented with red and black accessories that give a Summer feel to it. And another boy, who has dirty blonde, slightly curly slicked back hair and a black plaid jacket with a red plaid accent. He has a white sleeveless shirt with a stylized skull on it and a little faded out jeans.

Roxas felt his heart soar.

“Hayner, Pence, Olette!” He grinned at them in glee.

‘”Holly shit, you’re blonde!” His bestest friend, Hayner, acknowledged.

“Roxas! We finally meet, huh?” Olette waved at him confidently.

“Dude, it’s about time!” Pence was about to go in for a hug, but then thought better of it, most likely remembering how Japanese people aren’t that keen on physical affection.

Roxas appreciated the thoughtfulness. Having his friends be there in person was already pretty overwhelming.

For a moment the four teens just stood there, smiling at each other and enjoying the adrenaline rush. Then Hayner broke the ice.

“So… wanna see our hideout?” He nudged Roxas playfully, who in turn pokes back.

“Hell yea!”

“Well, it’s not exactly a hideout… more like a spot we just kinda… took over” Olette explained as they made their way over to the spot Roxas has heard so much about.

The secret hide out was as cool as all the stories Roxas had heard about it made it out to be. It had a homey feel to it and all the necessities for a great hang out spot.

“This is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.” Roxas said with clear awe.

“Oh, by the way, I got you guys gifts!” The blonde slipped of his backpack and zipped it open to reveal it was stacked to the brim with various Japanese snacks. Umaibos, ramune snacks, kitkats, pocky, sour plum candies, and loads more. He had picked everything carefully, to make sure his friends would get the best dagashi experience.

He smiled as he saw his friends faces light up even more and they dumped the snacks onto a table. As his three friends dug in, Roxas explained what each snack food was. The pile grew smaller as the four exchanged stories and generally had a great time chatting with one another. As it turned out Hayner, Pecne and Olette all went to Radiant high school as well, and planned to become town guardian knights after graduation.

Roxas had no idea what that position entailed, but he was happy his friends had found something to strive after.

They chatted, ordered a pizza for lunch (courtesy of Pence) and played games until it was getting late. Olette insisted on them accompanying Roxas back to the dorm and they teased him about his terrible sense of direction, to which Roxas retorted that he’d successfully found the school campus and their meeting place on his own thank you.

They joked and laughed all the way to the dorms, taking one last break in a park near the campus before separating for the day.

The blonde was still wiping tears of laughter from his eyes when got to his room. The door was unlocked, so his roommate must’ve already come back.

He gave a half wave and a ‘Hey’ to Demyx upon spotting the other blonde at his room half’s desk, hunching over an open notebook and chewing on a pen.

His hey got reciprocated with a distracted murmur. Roxas didn’t mind though. He fell into his bed, exhausted from the eventful day.

Still he turned on and puled close his laptop. He checked his mail to find that the school faculty staff had sent him credentials to access the student website along with a schedule and possible choice subject options.

The blonde sighed, closed his laptop and opened union x to claim his daily jewels and hunt for some lux. The schedule could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long. I started fandom hopping again so my motivation for writing has been wavering...  
> So I put on All Time Low playlist to get into the Roxas mood :D I feel like those songs really fit him :)  
> Also sorry for grammar/spelling errors...  
> And i swear i should've written this in present tense. For some reason i keep accidentally switching to it while writing and then i have to correct it TT


	7. Bonding time

Roxas stared at his food supplies with narrowed eyes. He knew he’d forgotten to do something yesterday. And that was getting more food.

His last pack of instant ramen and two mashed potato flavored umaibo sticks stared back at him from the confines of his desk drawer.

‘That’s ok…’ Roxas thought to himself as he headed to the small kitchen to put on some water for the ramen, ‘I’ll just go out and buy some food later.’ He looked at the kitchen window, through which he could see a vicious sheet of rain pouring down on everything in sight. ‘After the rain stops.’

The boy checked the time on his phone. It read 12:40, which wasn’t that bad of a time to have breakfast at if he thought about it. It was a Sunday after all. No school, no training and no responsibilities.

His roommate was nowhere in sight by the time Roxas had crawled out of the soft sanctuary that was his bed, so the blonde deducted he’d gone out somewhere.

In the rain.

How anyone would want to go out when it was pouring like that was beyond him, but he wasn’t about to question Demyx’s reasons. As long as the guy didn’t get rain water on his side of the room they would be fine.

After finishing his breakfast, Roxas opened the e-mail about schedules and typed back a response, choosing History, Art, Basic IT, Psychology and Home economics as choice subjects. He then checked out the school’s website and saved a copy of his schedule. Just in case.

The boy lazily scrolled through his social media pages and checked out the new chapters for his favorite manga. Then after that, he watched youtube videos and played union x. He considered maybe pulling out his sketchpad and drawing something at one point, but the inspiration just wasn’t there. His mind was blank in the creative department.

Roxas spent most of the day just doing random things online, not really caring for productivity. The rain outside hadn’t stopped, even being joined by lightning and thunder for a while, before going back to a steady downpour, so he couldn’t go outside to get food. Which was becoming a problem.

He could feel himself starting to fall asleep, while watching a man make a knife out of jelly cubes, when the door to the room rattled, and opened, revealing two laughing people, drenched from head to toe and carrying three thin boxes.

Demyx walked in first, closely followed by the redhead, whose name Roxas still didn’t know. The two dripping guys got a judgmental look from the blonde, for trekking water and mud everywhere and not taking off their damn shoes at the entrance. Savages.

“Yo! Roxas!” Demyx shot him a bright smile while setting down the two boxes he was carrying, then taking the third one from his friend and adding it to the pile.

“Nice weather outside, huh?” He laughed and went back to shut the door.

“I wouldn’t really call it nice,” Roxas gave the pair a deadpan look, “but you do you I guess.”

He was about to get back to the video, but was once again addressed, this time, by the redhead.

“We brought some pizza, ya hungry?”

Roxas’s mouth went dry as he remembered just how many hours had passed since he’d eaten his last umaibo stick. His stomach gave an embarrassing growl and the boy closed his laptop, putting it away and instead moving closer to the two dripping guys and the pizza boxes, now looking more like saints.

The two just laughed at his response, taking off their drenched jackets and kicking off their boots, to get more comfortable, in the process.

Roxas and Demyx settled down on Demyx’s bed, while the redhead sat backwards on a chair. The sudden proximity was just a little awkward, but not entirely unwelcome. Especially when there was free food to sate his hunger.

Halfway through his second slice of pizza, Roxas remembered that he had manners among other things.

“Uhh..” he caught the others’ attention, “thanks for the pizza, it’s really good.” He gave them a light smile in gratitude.

“Don’t sweat it man, it’s kind of a peace offering in a way? We didn’t really start on the best foot so…” the redhead finished his sentence with an elegant wave with his slice of pizza.

“So, we cool?” Demyx asked, with his mouth half full.

Roxas thought it over for a bit.

“We’re … neutral… I’d say.” Food or no food, he wasn’t about to forgive everything that happened so easily. For now, neutral was the best the two would get from him. Especially the redhead.

They shared a look with one another, before the redhead shrugged.

“I’ll take that as a win.”

Roxas looked at the green eyed boy, furrowing his brows a bit, and voicing a question that had been sitting in his mind for quite a long time now.

“By the way… who exactly are you?”

Demyx burst into laughter, nearly choking in the process.

“Oh my gods, I can’t believe I never introduced you!”

The redhead sputtered a little, before shaking his head in defeat. He slapped Demyx, before pulling himself together and giving Roxas one of his weird, slightly suspicious looking smiles.

“The name’s Axel. Got it memorized?” He tapped his index finger to his temple for emphasis.

Roxas gave him a questioning look, but didn’t press on, instead trying out the name.

“Axel. I guess I can remember that.”

At this Demyx waved a hand dismissively and explained “He says that to everyone. Something about always living on in people’s memories.”

Axel sputtered again.

“Hey! That’s my thing! Don’t take that away from me.”

The three laughed.

“And what’s your name?” Axel prompted, his green eyes gleaming.

For some reason, Demyx looked confused at that.

“Wait, you already kno-mfwwvv” Axel slapped a hand over the blonde’s mouth effectively cutting him off.

Roxas looked at the exchange weirdly, but replied anyway,

“I’m Roxas Strife. Nice to officially meat you.” He gave the redhead one of his own cocky smirks.

Demyx looked between the two, before pulling away Axel’s hand.

“Have you two… met before?”

Roxas didn’t waste a second replying, secretly enjoying the panicked look that took over Axel’s features.

“He kidnapped me and threatened me to join some gang, before I froze him and ran away.”

The room was silent for a moment, before Demyx fell back on the bed, laughing like crazy.

“You did wha….and he… and you… oh wow…” he managed to say between wheezes of laughter.

Roxas just stared at Axel with a smirk, enjoying the other’s misery, before resuming to eat the pizza slice.

Demyx was wiping tears from his eyes as he got back up, body still shaking with laughter.

“Well that explains a lot.” He looked at the embarrassed redhead in glee.

“Yea, yea, shut up now.” Axel scratched the back of his neck and pulled his hand through his hair to calm down.

“And it’s an organization, not a gang.” He added on. “By the way Demyx is also part of it, so if you change your mind the offer still stands.”

He gave Roxas a wink, at which the blonde gave him a skeptical look.

“Yeaaa no. Not interested.”

They ate in comfortable silence for a while, before Axel inquired about the reason Roxas had transferred here.

“My older brother thought it would be a good idea to send me here. He wanted me to get out more and make new friends and stuff. And I couldn’t really do anything against it, so here I am I guess. ” He replied.

“Older brother?” Demyx pressed on “Why’s he getting a say in what you do?”

Roxas focused at the pizza slice in his hands. He was getting pretty full, so he probably should stop eating after this one.

“It’s his house. My parents are gone so me and my other brothers live with him.”

“Gone?” He heard Axel ask, so he looked back up at him.

“Dead”.

This time the room was enveloped in an uncomfortable silence, and before Roxas could realize how what he’d said sounded, Demyx and Axel both started apologizing at the same time.

“Shit man, sorry, I didn’t mean to prod and stuff…-”

“Oh damn, sorry for your loss…-”

Roxas held up his hands pacifyingly.

“No, it’s fine! It was like a lot of years ago, everyone’s totally over it.” He gave them a panicky smile, to try and carry the message across.

It worked… kind of.

“Well if you say so…”

“Really? Ok then…”

This time the silence was just plain awkward, so Roxas decided to break it.

“So what are the teachers here like?”

That turned out to be the perfect distraction, as the two took turns telling him all about the various professors and their personalities and quirks. He learned that master Yen Sid teaches literature, which was bound to be an … experience. He could already imagine the man’s deep voice talking about some ancient novel.

They talked for a bit more, before Axel’s phone started vibrating, and he pulled it out of his pants pocket.

“Yea?”

Roxas watched as the redhead’s eyes lit up when whoever was calling started talking. Upon closer inspection, he realized the purple diamonds under Axel’s eyes were actually upside down tear drops. That was … interesting.

“Relax, I’m at Dem’s… wait for real?”

The blonde kept observing how Axel’s expression changed from joy to confusion, to alarm.

“Shit, I didn’t realize. I’m on my way.”

Axel shoved the phone back into his pocket and got up from the chair.

“Damn, it’s almost past curfew.” He ran a hand through his red hair and put on his still soaked jacket.

“Time flies when you’re having fun?” Demyx supplied from his position on the bed while his friend was struggling to get his wet, black boots back on.

“I guess so…”

He got up and suddenly a whirlwind of fire enveloped Axel’s whole body, lighting up his surroundings in an orange glow. When the flames disappeared, just as fast as they had been conjured, Axel’s clothes and hair were dry.

Roxas whistled, impressed.

“That’s a nice trick.”

The redhead sent him a mischievous smile.

“Fire’s not just all burn, baby.”

Roxas sputtered a high pitched “baby??!!”, blushing at the remark. Axel’s eyes widened as well, like he hadn’t expected to say that.

“Oh my gods, get out of here!” Demyx cackled. He got up from the bed and shoved the redhead out of the door, before he could embarrass himself any further.

The blonde closed the door, and turned to Roxas, who was still stunned.

“Don’t mind that, he’s just an idiot.” He pointed his thumb towards the door Axel had been shoved through for emphasis.

“Yea… Right.” Roxas cleared his throat, pulling himself together. What even was that?

“I’ll uh… get back to my… stuff then.” He got off Demyx’s bed and shuffled towards his own.

“Okay. And I’m gonna finish this lovely pizza~” Demyx sing-sang, as he pulled out his phone and sat back down, sliding one of the nearly empty pizza boxes closer.

Roxas turned on his computer. He supposed Demyx wasn’t that bad to be around. Axel he still had his doubts about, even if the redhead looked pretty good while engulfed by flames…

Roxas shook his head to clear his mind. What was wrong with him all of a sudden? He decided to blame it on the light headedness and how late it was. He’d better start preparing for tomorrow. First day of the new school and all that. At least he wouldn’t be completely alone, Roxas had checked earlier and found out he shared a few classes with Hayner.

As one last thing to do, before going to bed, Roxas went up to the window to close the curtains. He lingered by the dark window for a bit, looking at the star speckled night sky.

At least the rain had finally stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this the setup chapters should be done and i can finally get into the actual story :D
> 
> Once again - sorry it took so long, staying motivated is hard. Also i started playing DnD with a group of friends and i'm the DM, so planning has taken up most of my time ^^;  
> Nevertheless i will keep on writing, because there are a lot of scenes i can't wait to get to :D
> 
> Thank you for all the views and kudos~  
> And special thanx to cameronclaire for being awesome! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I made the first 2 chapters for this story on Fanfiction.net a few years ago, but i still like the idea so i decided to rewrite and continue it. And i am actually glad i did. This could work as a good writing exercise.
> 
> Drop a comment if you have any questions, comments, criticisms, ideas or just wanna say hi! :)
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
